The Flow of Heat through the Floor of the Atlantic Ocean

Abstract

Fifteen measurements of the heat flow through the ocean floor have been made in the Atlantic and one in the Mediterranean. One measurement in the central valley of the Mid‐Atlantic Ridge gives a heat flow of 6.5 μcal/cm2s. Similar very high values have been found by others on the crest of the East Pacific Rise. The possibility that these high values represent the rising limb of a convection current is discussed. The mean of the remaining fifteen values and of five from a previous investigation, give a mean heat flow of 1.06 ± 0.055 μcal/cm2 s which is very close to the mean for all measurements in the Pacific excluding those on the East Pacific Rise. The equipment has been modified so that the temperature gradients in the whole probe and in its lower half can be determined separately. The lower half gives a value 8.8 per cent above that for the whole probe, the reason for this is not known. The thermal resistivity of ocean sediment, R, is found to be a linear function of the water content, ω (in per cent water of the wet weight). At the temperature of the ocean floor the relation is R(cms deg C/cal) = (168 ± 14)+(6.78 ± 0.31)ω. Copyright © 1937, Wiley Blackwell. All rights reserved